Arts Department Drama and Dance Program

Drama

The Upper School program offers both curricular and extracurricular opportunities for students to explore Drama. Through performing, students learn to use their voices and bodies expressively, to analyze and enliven a text, to think and create on their feet, to physicalize abstract ideas, and to present themselves confidently in front of an audience. Recent alumni have continued their performing in college, where their theatrical adventures have included acting, directing, designing, and stage-managing in productions as well as completing majors and minors in theater performance and production.

Two year-long acting electives are offered each year in the Upper School. Introduction to Acting is offered every year; advanced acting electives rotate so that students can take a four-year sequence with a different emphasis each year.

Extracurricular offerings include two major drama productions each year and an Instant Theater Festival.

The extracurricular Upper School drama program seeks to

involve interested students in a variety of aspects of the drama;
expose its audiences, actors, and technicians to a wide range of dramatic styles, periods, and playwrights;
expand the range and develop the skills of its participants; and
promote drama as an enjoyable and thought-provoking art form.

Productions

Two “mainstage” non-musical plays are produced in the Upper School each year, though some of the productions incorporate music and dance. In addition to performing, students build the sets, participate in design decisions, hang lights and configure audio equipment, and run the show during performances, with a student stage manager calling all of the cues. Rehearsals and tech sessions are held after school and on occasional weekends. Recent productions have included works ranging in style from Shakespeare to science fiction, with cast sizes ranging from ten to 25. Holley Hall’s flexible performance space provides the opportunity for stages customized to each production, including varied stage configurations and design styles

Instant Theater Festival

Each May, starting in 2003, Rutgers Prep students have produced and organized an Instant Theater Festival (ITF). The ITF is a fast-paced adventure compressing the entire play production process into a little more than 24 hours. Student playwrights are assigned to write a script for a small group of student actors. After scripts are submitted one Saturday morning, directors and actors arrive to begin rehearsing. A team of students finds and makes props and costumes as others configure lighting and sound effects. That evening several world-premiere short plays, all related to the festival theme, are performed for an exhilarated audience.

Recent Achievements

Recent drama productions include “A Wrinkle in Time,” “Much Ado about Nothing,” and “Almost, Maine.” In 2015, Rutgers Prep produced a world-premiere adaptation of “The Two Princesses of Bamarre” by Gail Carson Levine, who attended a performance. Students from Rutgers Prep have performed in McCarter Theater’s production of “A Christmas Carol,” and as part of the Show Choir at Paper Mill Playhouse.

Faculty Professional Development and Achievements

Department Chair Cora Turlish was a Directing Fellow in the 2014 Directing Workshop for Theater Educators at The Juilliard School. Her recent workshops include acting intensives with the Fiasco and Red Bull Theater Companies as well as “Making Theater without a Script” with Elevator Repair Service. She has also studied Improvisation with The Upright Citizens Brigade and Playwriting at Primary Stages.

Dance

Whether motivated by a curiosity to try something new or by a continuing interest in the discipline, at Rutgers Prep students can explore several different aspects of dance and performance.

In the Upper School, we have three dance offerings:

Explorations in Dance - Introductions into multiple dance styles (ballet, jazz, contemporary, and hip hop but not limited to these) with performance opportunities at the Spring Dance Concert. This class also participates in at least one dance workshop a year. This class meets every day during 9th period.
Intermediate Dance - Developing technical skills in multiple dance styles (ballet, jazz, modern, contemporary, and hip hop but not limited to these) with performance opportunities at the Spring Dance Concert. Part of the curriculum delves into choreography and developing an artistic voice. These students participate in at least one dance workshop a year and meet two or three times a week, depending on the week's schedule.
Advanced Dance - Strengthening and deepening technical skills in multiple dance styles (ballet, jazz, modern, contemporary, and hip hop but not limited to these) with an emphasis on artistic voice and choreography. The students are collaborators in the choreography and get to input their creative ideas into the dances. This class performs multiple dances at the year-end show, participates in dance workshops, and meets two or three times a week depending on the schedule.

In the Middle School, we have one dance offering for 6th graders:

Creative Movement - A class built to introduce novice or experienced dancers to jazz and hip hop through multiple dance performances throughout the year. In the first session, students learn about the language of dance, notating dances, and ending with creating short dances. The majority of the sessions are spent learning choreography to perform at the Prep Rally and end-of-the-year showcase.

Productions
Faculty Professional Development and Achievements

Productions

The Spring Dance Concert is designed as a celebration of the students' talents, showcasing forms of dance studied inside and outside of school. Student performances include works in the genres of Modern, Ballet, Hip Hop, Jazz, Contemporary, Indian Dance, and Classical Chinese Dance. The dancers also have the opportunity to present their own movement studies, demonstrating their choreography skills and creativity.

Additional opportunities for students to explore the art form are musical theatre productions, the School’s Diwali celebration, which includes dance performances by students from all divisions of the campus, and the Pom Squad which performs at all home games for Boys and Girls Varsity Basketball teams.

Faculty Professional Development and Achievements

Johsian Martinez-Gonzalez serves as an audition faculty member of the Dance Department at Rutgers University and has taught at the Rutgers Summer Dance Conservatory. He also teaches at multiple local studios throughout Central and Northern New Jersey. He has choreographed several musical productions at Woodbridge High School and been recognized and nominated for choreography awards at the Central Jersey Marquee Awards. In 2022, he earned the Nancy Higginson Door Award in recognition of his teaching.